6.19.2009

¨Yoon...Guy¨

The town of Jungay is famous for two reasons. It is situated at the base of South America´s second and Peru´s tallest mountain, Huascaran. And in 1970, an earthquake let loose a snow-chunk of that mountain so huge that, after having slid down its slopes and quickly launched into the air by a neighboring (and smaller) mountain that acted as a sort of ramp, the entire town was buried. Few survived and a massive memorial, rivaling the size of America´s fallen troop memorial in Normandy, remains in the place of the old Jungay. (Understandably, surviving residents built new Jungay off the path of what could be another avalanche).

The views from Jungay are beautiful, and I love visiting every time. But, not remembering the words of my 8th grade Nigerian earth science teacher, I kept asking myself, are the reoccurrences of earthquakes linked to any kind of pattern? And if so is that pattern at all close to 39 years?

Regardless, we had a good time. And River took some sweet pics. What you see below are pics in and around Jungay, including a visit to a school where we helped a group of educators and students from the States to teach sex education.

Tomorrow is the big Father´s Day celebration at River´s school (think dancing, colorful dress, and home-cooking). And today I have to buy what River´s teacher is calling a ¨torch¨ because tonight she, along with her classmates, will march in Huaraz´s Belen Plaza carrying (what I understand to be) long sticks with kites attached to the top.

Awesome.



















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